Garcia sentenced to 85 years

Steve Garcia had maintained Jakob Trevino had fallen to the floor and he had shaken the infant.

SAN ANGELO, Texas - A host of character witnesses testified that Steve Garcia had been loving and caring around their children, but their testimony didn’t move 391st District Judge Tom Gossett.

Gossett sentenced Garcia to 85 years in prison for murdering his 7-month-old stepson, Jakob Trevino.

“What that shows is the duplicitous nature of Mr. Garcia,” lead prosecutor Allison Palmer said about testimony regarding Garcia’s concern for other children.

Jakob Trevino was killed May 2, 2009, and despite pressure from the prosecution on uncertainties and contradictions in Garcia’s story, Garcia maintained the baby had fallen to the floor twice and he had shaken the child three times.

An autopsy concluded that the child died of blunt force trauma. Bite marks were found on the child’s chin, and Garcia said he would playfully bite the baby because of “a fetish” he had.

Thursday, a Tom Green County jury convicted the 23-year-old defendant of murder, a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The trial began Monday.

Murder was the harshest option given the jury, which could have convicted Garcia of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, or acquitted him.

Charlotte Livingston, an ex-girlfriend of Garcia, said her former boyfriend was practically a father to her children, children whom Garcia had known since their infancy. Garcia always treated them well, she said.

“I’ve never seen him get angry,” Livingston said.

Another woman, an ex-fiancée, said she let Garcia bathe her daughter four or five months after she met him. She said he treated her daughter like a princess.

A cousin said Garcia always acted well around the 42 grandchildren in their family.

“He was around all of them, playing with them, making sure they wouldn’t get hurt,” she said.

Palmer was not impressed. In her concluding statement, she noted Garcia wore a shirt that said, “I am a role model” the day the baby died.

Detective Patti Stooksberry with the San Angelo Police Department testified that during the time she knew Garcia, who was good friends with her daughter when the two were in high school, he had never been violent, and that he would calm people down in sports.

“He was very polite, respectful,” Stooksberry said.

The prosecution brought in Victoria Trevino and her sister Sylvia Chappa to talk about what life was like after Jakob’s death.

Chappa said it was hard to explain the death to the children.

“They asked, ‘Where is he going? Why are they taking him?’” Chappa said of the day Jakob was injured.

A day care worker said the oldest child would approach her.

“He was very sad,” the day care worker said. “He would tell me his baby brother was in heaven and wasn’t coming back.”

Chappa said the emotional pain hadn’t come just on the day of the injuries, or in the time at the hospital, but on the drive home and at the funeral and beyond.

She said occasionally they would find a pacifier or a bottle and the pain would flood back.

“It’s like it’s never going to leave,” Chappa said.

Garcia’s friends and family wept after hearing the judge’s sentence. The bailiff passed them tissues, and the chains on Garcia clinked together while he walked across the courtroom to be led to the Tom Green County Jail.

Garcia will need to serve half of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

James Phelps, a criminal justice professor at Angelo State University, said the average life span for a man in the Texas prison system is 62 to 65 years.

He said it costs on average about $23,000 per year to house an inmate in Texas.

“It’s just a very sad situation for everyone in there,” lead defense attorney Jimmy Stewart said after the sentencing, and then he walked across the empty courthouse mall.